Floyd Mayweather Jr. back in the ring Saturday: Boxing Insider

AP Photo/Julie JacobsonFloyd Mayweather, left, and Miguel Cotto pose for a photo during a news conference Wednesday, May 2, 2012, in Las Vegas. Mayweather and Cotto are scheduled to box for a super welterweight title on Saturday.

The ongoing saga of Floyd Mayweather Jr. takes over once again Saturday when boxing’s biggest moneymaker challenges WBA super welterweight champion Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

As usual, with all of his pay-per-view televised appearances, it has been an HBO hyperactive promotion to pull in every dollar possible for this “Ring Kings” affair. Since many of his fights have resembled programmed wins without challenge, Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOs) has gone out of his way to give Cotto (37-2, 29 KOs) his due, especially since his opponent is the bigger man.

Still, Mayweather could not go against his nature.

“Last time I checked, all 42 [of my opponents] have been dangerous,” he said last week during a conference call.

“But they all ended up in the same place.”

Unless Cotto can summon the skills, with power, the talk about Mayweather finally facing pound-for-pound rival Manny Pacquiao will start early. That’s how it has gone when either man fought the past three years.

They will try to bring home the area’s first national title since Shawn Porter (165) in 2007.

The coaches are Forrest Caldwell from Thurgood Marshall and Fred Wilson from Inner City, along with GG President Terry Gallagher and GG Treasurer Clytee Dunn.

Results: Age finally caught up with 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins on Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J.

No matter all the urging from the Boardwalk Hall partisans, Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KOs) could not muster the energy to punch more than once at a time and lost a majority decision in a rematch against WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KOs).

The scores were 117-111 twice, with the third judge’s card a suspect 114-114.

Other than headbutting Dawson to cause several cuts, Hopkins was not busy enough to earn consistent points. . . . On that undercard, Porter, now 24 and fighting as a junior middleweight, was much the best against overmatched 39-year-old Patrick Thompson (18-18-1, 8 KOs). It was just a matter of time before Porter (19-0, 14 KOs) wore down his man and finally stopped him at 1:39 of the sixth round. It was Porter’s first bout in 14 months. . . . The night before in Austin, Texas, nothing went right for Cleveland featherweight Yuandale Evans, as he was dropped twice and stopped in the first round by Javier Fortuna (19-0, 14 KOs). It was the first loss for Evans (16-1, 12 KOs).

Saturday: If you are not paying to watch Mayweather-Cotto, ESPN2 has a special-edition telecast with middleweight Demetrius Andrade (16-0, 11 KOs) taking on Rudy Cisneros (12-3, 11 KOs) at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut at 10 p.m.

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